Dreadnought!
The Federation's ultimate war machine -- captured by terrorists. Summary ;From the book jacket: :Star Empire is the Federation's most powerful new weapon -- a dreadnought, first in a class of super-starships -- capable of outgunning a dozen Klingon cruisers, or subduing a galaxy. :''On the eve of her maiden voyage, ''Star Empire is stolen by terrorists who demand a rendezvous with the Starship ''Enterprise'' -- and with Lieutenant Piper, stationed aboard James Kirk's ship on her first training cruise. Now Piper must discover why her friends from Starfleet are among the terrorists... and why they insist the ship was stolen not to attack the Federation -- but to save it!'' A prototype starship is stolen by a conspiracy of Starfleet officers who are old friends of a new young Lieutenant named Piper who was recently posted to the Enterprise. An Admiral insists on taking his personal flagship and accompanying the Enterprise to apprehend the stolen starship, where it turns out that the new starship was stolen not to start a war, but to prevent one. The crew of the Enterprise and the hijackers must work together to foil a plot by the Admiral to use this new ship to begin a military coup of the Federation. The story is told from the point of view of a young Ms. Piper, a Cadet at Starfleet Academy, undergoing her Kobayashi Maru examination (she almost succeeds, by crashing the simulator's computers while trying to improvise an engineering solution to the problem). Upon graduation she is posted as a Lieutenant to the USS Enterprise along with a group of other junior officers (Sarda the Vulcan, Merete the Doctor and "Scanner" the Engineer). However, the USS Star Empire, the prototype of the new Dreadnought Starships is stolen by a group of rogue officers lead by Commander Paul Burch, an old friend of Piper. Kirk's suspicions about young Piper are seemingly confirmed when the stolen Dreadnought sends a signal, addressed to her and encryped such that only she can open the message, so she is quickly placed under arrest for Conspiracy. The mastermind of the Dreadnought Project, Vice Admiral Vaughn Rittenhouse arrives aboard is personal flagship the Saladin Class destroyer Pompey. Piper and her friends manage to escape from the brig and manage to sneak onboard Star Empire. It quickly becomes obvious that he intends to use the Dreadnought to execute a military coup of the Federation and establish himself as a dictator, and stealing Star Empire was the only way possible to stop the coup. Piper and the crew of Star Empire manage to convince Kirk and the Enterprise crew of the threat and they work together to stop Admiral Rittenhouse, and the Pompey is destroyeed in the resulting battle. The USS Star Empire is returned to Starfleet and Kirk argues that it should be scrapped Continuation In Pocket TOS:"The Lost Years", this story is referenced as Admiral Nogura describes the general Federation public's wariness of a protective Starfleet torn apart by a corruption scandal, he offers it as one of his main reasons for promoting Kirk to rear admiral -- a famous and respected starship captain promoted to the admiralty to replace Rittenhouse will help restore public confidence in Starfleet. Background Information *Author Diane Carey made extensive use of the Star Fleet Technical Manual when writing this novel, her first Star Trek work published by Pocket Books. Besides the use of the titular three-nacelled dreadnought type ship, the organization of the Federation and Starfleet infrastructure revealed to Piper by the library computer is identical to the layout written by Franz Joseph in that manual. She also mentions several Federation starships and starship classes from that work, such as the ''Saladin''-class of destroyer. Even major characters Piper, "Scanner" Sandage, Vaughan Rittenhouse, Sukaru Tutakai and Sarda were named for ''Ptolemy''-class transport/tugs USS Piper, USS Sandage, USS Rittenhouse and the ''Constitution''-variant subclass vessels USS Tutakai and (probably) USS Sardar. Carey also misspells Potemkin as Potempkin, as Franz Joseph did in the earlier manual. *Many of Carey's original characters and concepts were reused in her later Trek novels, beginning with the sequel "Battlestations!". When Pocket Books reissued "Dreadnought!" and "Battlestations!" in 1999, they made them part of a series called Fortunes of War. *Sequels for this series were discussed in the October 1990 issue of Starlog magazine (#159) when Carey was interviewed by Wanda J. Hall. A sequel called "By Logic Alone" would star Piper, and a follow-on two-parter focused on Kirk, but featuring Piper, would be called The Federation Mutiny. The novels were apparently never produced. *The illustrations of the Arco and Tycho "sleds" (small shuttlepod/fighters) were designed by Brian Thomas and illustrated by C. Paul. Interior art makes this book a rarity; no other Pocket Books Star Trek novels to date other than "Battlestations!" and the young adult series (such as Star Trek: Starfleet Academy) have featured interior artwork. The painted cover by Boris Vallejo reportedly had Diane Carey and collaborator Greg Brodeur pose for the likenesses of Piper and Sarda. Even though the information about the dreadnought's configuration was derived from the aforementioned Technical Manual, the design of the ship was quite different. Vallejo's rendering depicts the ship with more advanced detailing similar to the later ''Excelsior''-class starships. *The events of this novel, of a Starfleet vice-admiral trying to start a military coup of the Federation, are similar to a later DS9 storyline in "Homefront" and "Paradise Lost". Memorable Quotes QUOTES Characters For characters that have been mentioned in canon, please reference their main article linked through their name. Main ;James T. Kirk : Captain. ;Piper : Lieutenant. See Piper for characters with similar names. ; Vaughn Rittenhouse : Vice Admiral ; Sarda ; Merete AndrusTaurus ; Judd "Scanner" Sandage ; Paul Burch ; Spock ; Leonard H. McCoy ; Montgomery Scott ; Uhura ; Hikaru Sulu Other ; Adeb ben Abdullah : Commander. ; Ran Armstrong : Admiral, former captain of the USS Constellation. By 2270 he was the Starfleet Representative to the UFP Congress. ; Elizabeth Connolly : Commander. ; Chirita Dur Tahr : Commander. ; Irene Fogel-Malone : Commander. ; Stephen Leedson : Captain of USS Hornet. ; Roy Nash : Captain of USS Lincoln given temporary promotion to commodore by Rittenhouse. ; Lu Sing Quaid : Commander, chairman of the Starship Officer Selection Committee and also a member of the Logistical Support Committee at Starfleet Command. ; Niditoricumtu Ro : Captain. See Ro for other characters with a similar name. ; Stav : Chief adjutant. ; Nigel Swenson : Federation underscretary for the interior. ; Sukaru Tutakai : Captain of [[USS Potemkin|USS ''Potempkin]]. ; Susan Yin : Commander, a first officer of one of the ships that arrived to support Rittenhouse's coup. References ; Arco-class : Type of attack sled. ; Dante : Workbee on the USS Enterprise. ; Grey Matter : Workbee on the Enterprise. ; Honey Bun : Arco-class. ; [[USS Hornet|USS Hornet]] : Captain Leedson. ; USS Liberty : Starship simulated in Piper's Kobayashi Maru test. ; USS Lincoln : Captain Nash. ; [[USS Magellan|USS Magellan]] : A "Galaxy" ship, commanded by Captain Flynn. This vessel was also referred to in the novelizations of Star Trek II and Star Trek III. In Star Trek II's book, this ship was caled USS ''Magellanic Clouds. ; Perceptive : Textile freighter decimated by space pirates. ; Polliwog : Tycho-class one-man light interceptor fighter. ; USS Pompeii (NCC-424) : Saladin class MT-1 destroyer destroyed by Rittenhouse's order. ; [[USS Potemkin|USS Potempkin]] : Captain Tutakai. ; Prodigy : Workbee. ; Rock Slide : Arco sled. ; Runamuk : Arco sled. ; USS Star Empire (MKC-2331) : Mk-X class I Federation dreadnought. ; Stocking Cap : Arco sled. ; Tycho-class : Type of interceptor fighter. ; Wooden Shoe : Arco sled commandeered by Lieutenant Piper. ; Zipper Fly : Arco sled. Timeline ;Stardate 7881.2 (2253) : A roster of Vulcan training and education techniques is supplied to the Federation by emissaries from Earth. By 2270 this is still the last information supplied on the topic. Seventeen years before the novel. ;Stardate 8180.2 (2266) : Piper enters Starfleet Academy. ;2268 : VADM Rittenhouse orders the construction to begin on Star Empire. ;2270 Category:Novels